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An Apology? Not In My Book

By it should be pretty obvious that Mark Cuban is well, a maverick owner, no pun intended. I’ve certainly lost count of the times that Cuban has been fined for various antics and comments over the years, and we’ve certainly been accustomed to seeing Cuban in a Mavericks t-shirt cheering on his team courtside like a maniac fan. I do respect many things about him, such as the fact the man responds to every e-mail (I know because I’ve gotten prompt answers from him to two queries in the past year. Granted, he declined my request to appear on our talk show, but at least he responded). However, I have to draw the line when the man is yelling at fans in the stands, specifically family members of the opposing team. In this case, he shouted at Kenyon Martin’s mom following Denver’s one point win over the Mavericks in game three of their Western Conference semifinal series.

We know the cameras caught Cuban shouting at Martin’s mother, and varying reports say that Cuban called Martin either a “punk” or a “thug” in the exchange. There is simply no place for this, period, especially from a team owner. It is perhaps due to this exchange that certain Mavericks fans felt entitled to act like hooligans in game four. Martin’s mom had a full cup of beer thrown on her in game four and the culprit was not ejected from the American Airlines Center as he should have been. Other family members of Nuggets players, including La La Vasquez, wife of Carmelo Anthony, had to endure countless jeers and obscenities from the Dallas fans. It is obvious that security did not do their job because Vasquez felt compelled left the arena before the game was over.

Perhaps too late, Cuban did issue an apology on his blog. While the apology is a nice gesture, the fact that it is in a blog and not face to face, or at the very least over the phone, makes it woefully insufficient. I suppose it is public this way, but it seems to me to be, well, a chicken apology. Honestly, how hard is it for Cuban to pick up the phone and call her? Or, how hard would it have been for Cuban to nip things in the bud before game four and apologize then, especially when he could have done it face to face? Better yet, why didn’t Cuban get on the jumbotron and urge his fans to behave with class? Or made sure his security personnel were on the lookout? Regardless, this strikes me as the Mavericks owner being scared of even talking to Martin or his mother face to face, so he’s taking the easy way out. Think about it, if you’ve done something wrong and feel bad about it, are you going to apologize through a third party? Of course not. If you’re a sensible person, you’re going to clear the air face to face.

It is my hope that the Nuggets close out the Mavericks at the Pepsi Center tomorrow night. Not just because I’m a Nuggets fan, but because I really don’t want this series to go back to Dallas. No fan base is perfect, but I can say with confidence that our fans in Denver aren’t stupid enough to pour beers on opposing fans, especially when that fan is a family member of a player. (You know it’s bad when Nuggets coach George Karl says he would use a stronger word than hostile to describe the Dallas faithful in game four). I know for a fact that Nuggets owner Stan Kroenke wouldn’t come close to engaging in an argument with anyone on an opposing team, let alone a fan just trying to enjoy the game. I guess the point here is the owner is responsible for ALL aspects of the team, and that includes the in game environment at the arena. Cuban could have prevented the game four foolish in the stands, and instead perhaps instigated it by mouthing off. Further, his apology comes well short because he’s not man enough to do it face to face.

I look forward to the positive example Kroenke and the Nuggets fans will provide tomorrow night.